Is War Right?
Last Sunday I explained to our church that due to the length of the Deacon’s ordination, I would speak briefly on the topic, What is a Deacon, and then in the mid-week service address the topic I had previously planned, Is War Right? Well, I was appreciative of the good attendance and also by comments from some of our people such as, “We did everything we could to get here for tonight; we didn’t want to miss this sermon.” Now, quite frankly, every pastor would love to hear these comments about his sermons every time he spoke. It is understandable with the war to liberate Iraq underway, this subject is on everyone’s minds. Today, I want to re-visit this subject because now we are in the heat of the conflict.
1. If we have exhausted the options of peace without conflict, war can be justified.
The Bible says, “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men” (Romans 12:18). I like the way the old Quaker put it, when finding an illegal trespasser on his property, “I love thee, Friend and I wish to do thee no harm, however, thou art standing where my blunderbuss is about to fire.”
Our President has been maligned as “the cowboy” president, inferring he is a “quick-draw” and has the attitude, “shoot first and ask questions later.” Nothing could be further from the truth. We also heard people refer to another president as a “cowboy president” in recent history. That was, of course, President Ronald Reagan. If some are getting the cowboy mentality confused with being tough when necessary, may I remind our readers, that it was this willingness to fight, rather than let tyranny rob the freedom from our fellow man, even those who live in other countries, that brought down the iron curtain and ended the cold war?
Prime Minister Chamberlain returned to Great Britain trying to assure his fellow Brits that Germany under Hitler meant them no harm. Some of the same things being said about another young man in Britain have been said about our President. But the world finally realized that peace at any price was the wrong attitude and the free world lived to disdain the procrastination of Chamberlain and elect that young man who became modern Britain’s most loved and respected Prime Minster, Sir Winston Churchill. We have forgotten the compromising speeches of Chamberlain, but even school children can quote the immortal words of Churchill to this day. The procrastination of even well meaning politicians cost the lives of thousands, more likely millions in World War II. Remember, it would have taken a pre-emptive strike to stop Hitler in the early stages. One of the truly sad things about the up-bringing of Saddam Hussein is that he was reared by an uncle who idolized Hitler and in turn, taught his ways to his vulnerable young nephew.
Two very different types of renowned authors wrote very powerful and yet very similar statements about pacifists, during World War II. The first was by George Orwell, “Those who ‘abjure’ violence can only do so because others are committing violence on their behalf.” C. S. Lewis prophesied, pacifism means “taking the straight road to a world in which there will be no pacifists.”
2. If our cause is just, war can be justified.
There is a powerful stanza of our national anthem that we should never forget, “O thus be it ever, when free men shall stand between their loved homes and the war’s desolation! Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n rescued land praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation! Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just; And this be our motto: ‘In God is our trust!’ And the star spangled banner in triumph shall wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
In dealing with a topic like this we need to clarify that we understand if someone asks us to go against the Word of God and the mind of Christ, of course in those instances, civil disobedience would be justified. “Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). In the present case of liberating Iraq, as in the case of fighting against the evil aggression of Japan, the Nazis of Germany and fascism of Italy in World War II, we can truthfully say our cause is just. If there is any doubt as to this just cause, I quote Kenneth Pollack, the former director of Gulf Affairs at the National Security Council and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (I leave out some of the quote, because of the extreme atrocities may not be best for our young readers to emotionally ingest), “This is a regime (in reference to Saddam Hussein’s government) that will gouge out the eyes of children to force confessions from their parents and grandparents. This is a regime that will crush all of the bones in the feet of a two-year-old girl to force her mother to divulge her father’s whereabouts. This is a regime that will hold a nursing baby at arm’s length from its mother to confess. This is a regime that will burn a person’s limbs off to force him to confess or comply. This is a regime that will slowly lower its victims into huge vats of acid, either to break their will or simply as a means of execution. This is a regime that applies electric shocks to the bodies of its victims, with great creativity. This is a regime that in 2000 decreed that the crime of criticizing the regime would be punished by cutting out the offender’s tongue. Torture is not a method of last resort in Iraq; it is often the method of first resort.”
The principle of Scripture defends fighting for this just cause with our country, “For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil” (Romans 13:3, 4). “Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well” (I Peter 2:13,14).
In the history of the church you find in the archives vindication of the doctrine of “just war.” In the late fourth century, Augustine wrote in Contra Faustum, “A great deal depends on the causes for which men undertake wars, and on the authority they have for doing so.” Thomas Aquinas, nine centuries later specifying, named three main criteria for determining if one could initiate war. (This part of just-war doctrine was called by the medieval scholastics jus ad bellum, the right to go to war, as distinct from jus in bello, the proper conduct of war.) The three were: whether war is declared by a legitimate sovereign; whether it is for a just cause—that is a cause that avenges wrongs or rights an injustice; and whether the belligerents “intend the advancement of good, or avoidance of evil.” William Bennett commented on this doctrine, “To those who argued that Christians should always seek peace, Aquinas responded that those who wage war justly do, in fact, aim at true peace, being opposed only to an “evil peace”. Indeed, Christians would be shirking from their religious duty were they not to struggle against unjust peace, including taking up arms.”
3. If our goal is healing and helping, war can be justified
The future New Jerusalem holds so many grand prospects; one of them is found in Revelation 22:2, “In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”
God’s ultimate goal for the nations of the earth is the healing of the nations. When young men and women go into a defense mode for our own country, it should be remedial, preventative and helpful. When we become involved with other nations, the goal should be the healing of that nation, in other words, to leave them better than when we found them.
Think of the history of our country and see if the outcome of our wars is that, as a rule, we are either a better people after war or we left our opponents in a better shape for democracy, freedom and even evangelism in some cases. Think of the westward expansion of our freedoms, from sea to shining sea, after the American Revolution. Think of the unifying and re-birth of freedom, even the beginning of the industrial revolution after The War Between the States. Who can argue that Japan became a world power of commerce as a direct result of World War II and the involvement of America to help them after the war? This is not even to mention the stopping of Nazi Germany from committing further attempts of genocide. Even in Afghanistan there is laughter in the streets along with music as oppression has lifted the dark clouds caused by the smothering influence of the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Children are being educated again and the discovery is apparent, that beyond the despots and terrorists were huddled masses of people yearning to be free. God willing, this will be repeated in Iraq. “...Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof…” (Leviticus 25:10).
God bless The United States of America; God bless our President, and God bless our troops and those that fight with them!
- Pastor Pope -